Chapter Text
“Oh my god, Hitoshi, you have more cat mugs than you do all the rest of your furniture combined!” Uraraka groaned as she put the 17th tightly wrapped cat mug into the box she was packing.
Shinsou narrowed his eyes at Uraraka. “Look, I like what I like, and I’ll throw out everything else if it doesn’t fit, but I’m not throwin’ out my coffee maker and my mugs,” he said with an air of finality.
Uraraka chuckled, stood up, and walked over to him.
She looked up with a small pout when she realized that he wasn’t bending down to meet her height. She puffed up her cheeks and used her quirk on herself, getting her a raised eyebrow as she floated up and wrapped her legs around his waist to keep herself anchored. She stuck out her tongue before kissing his cheek and pulling back.
She grumbled as she saw him keep his stoic composure, so she dove back in, peppering light kisses across his jaw and up to his lips.
She felt him crumble and melt against her as he brought one hand up to her neck and one at the small of her back before he deepened the kiss.
Smiling, she happily complied, both of them easily distracted away from the half packed boxes on the ground in Shinsou’s already half empty apartment.
Or rather, his former apartment, given how he was finalizing the move into Uraraka’s apartment that night.
It had been about a year since that night on the couch when Shinsou finally dared to want.
Their time together wasn’t filled with a bunch of firsts, nor was it filled with the perfect romantic moments. Most of their time together was either spent sprawled across Uraraka’s tangled bedsheets, hoping to avoid an untimely toe licks by one of their cats—Shinsou almost teared up the first time Uraraka had referred to the two cats as theirs and not just hers or his—or their time was spent lazing around in their pajamas eating ice cream on the couch.
It was quickly becoming Shinsou’s favourite couch.
Their schedules wouldn’t always line up, Shinsou mostly working at night and Uraraka in the daytime, but it turned out that just making an effort in actually trying to see each other made a world of a difference. Sure, there were nights when Shinsou would crawl into bed beside her, using the key she’d given him, just as she was getting up for her day, but the good night/good morning kisses they could steal away made it all worthwhile.
Shinsou didn’t care about being a high ranked hero. He just wanted to help people with a quirk that everyone seemed to have written off. So they sat down one night and tried to figure out the logistics of their relationship because it was made clear just a few months in that neither wanted this to be short term.
He took a few nights off so that they could spend more time together, and she took a few more paperwork and information gathering days so she wouldn’t have to patrol on no sleep. Over the months, they perfected this little dance, compromising just enough to fulfill their personal needs without sacrificing their dreams. Shinsou would make her coffee just as he was going to bed and Uraraka would pack him a lunch when she came home after her day.
The cats were the happiest with this situation because it turned out that most days, they’d have one warm human or another in bed almost the entire day. It worked wonders for their napping schedules.
The first time they had walked into the convenience store holding hands, Mr. Nakamura let out a sharp exhale and yelled out, “Finally!”
Shinsou couldn’t hold back an eye roll while Uraraka just smiled sweetly and planted a kiss on his cheek before hopping off to browse for snacks.
The shopkeeper invited them to dinner shortly after that night, upon the insistence of his wife. His wife had claimed that the heroes who saved him and his livelihood couldn’t be paid back in just a couple bento boxes. They deserved fresh home cooked meals because it was clear to Rika that neither hero cooked particularly healthy meals with their schedules.
Uraraka agreed to the dinner right away, excitedly wondering about Rika’s cooking skills after she had tasted those bentos. Shinsou wasn’t quite opposed to the dinner, but he would have much rather spent that night in Uraraka’s apartment. While he trusted Uraraka, he was still slow to trust everyone else.
It turned out, though, with the younger Nakamura son present, Shinsou should’ve worried more about having an avid fan rather than being belittled.
While the older Nakamura son was more reserved and just politely ate dinner with the two heroes, thanking them, seemingly out of obligation, for saving the store, the younger one couldn’t get enough time with Uraraka and Shinsou. He rattled off all the hero facts that he knew about both of them—their quirks, their ranks (or lack of rank in Shinsou’s case), their main publicized takedowns, and a freakish amount about their personal lives. The boy couldn’t begin to understand why the two were dating, still being largely in the “romance is gross” phase of his life, but he didn’t question it too much. He asked to be floated and to be put under mind control just to see what it was like. Uraraka obliged a bit more happily than Shinsou, the latter of whom was still wary of using his quirk on people outside of his job, but Mr. and Mrs. Nakamura were both more than happy to let it happen under the safety of their own home.
The boy showed them his plant control powers, making a flower bud bloom as he handed it to Uraraka on his mother’s insistence.
The two heroes told him about some of their time at UA. From what they knew, the school looked very different now than when they were there last, having repaired and upgraded after all the villain attacks during their year. The young boy was a UA hopeful so he wanted to know all about the campus and its teachers.
Shinsou let Uraraka do most of the talking.
It turned out that the more time he spent with her, the more her voice just became a soothing fixture in his life. The echoing sound of her laugh, the soft timbre of hums as she cooked, the surprisingly low dip of her teases. They were all music to his ears now.
He watched her interact with the Nakamuras. While he couldn’t exactly call them strangers at this point, she treated them like they were old friends. Her eyes crinkled in joy, her cheeks puffed in excitement, her hands fluttered around when they tried to push an obscene amount of food at her, and her insistence in helping clean everything up.
He couldn’t help but start to want so much more.
He couldn’t help but start to imagine a whole new life.
So, that night, when they went back to Uraraka’s apartment, he brought up the subject of moving in together. This was only a few months after they had started dating, so he wanted to clarify that he didn’t mean right that night or that week, he just wanted her to know that he was as serious as she wanted them to be.
His heart absolutely melted when she grinned and clapped her hands as she began to talk about how they’d rearrange furniture and decorations when they moved in together.
In reality, if Uraraka wanted to come after his mug collection, he’d probably let her, but the reason why he liked her so much was that he knew that she’d absolutely make room in her cupboards for his 17 cat mugs.
“What do you want for dinner tonight, roomie?” Shinsou asked as he nudged Uraraka when they brought up the last box to her apartment, the move made simple with her quirk.
Uraraka slid her arms around his waist and looked up at him with a sly look. “Mochi.”
Shinsou laughed. “What’re you gettin’ me for dessert then?” he asked when he rested his arms on her shoulders and lightly played with her hair.
Uraraka grinned wide. “More mochi,” she said with finality.
“Uh huh. We’ll see about that,” Shinsou said, bending down and lightly biting her cheek.
Uraraka let out an indignant yelp as her hand went up to her quickly reddening face.
Shinsou grabbed his new set of keys, hanging off his keychain with two cat charms that resembled their cats and one Uravity charm that resembled his girlfriend, and led Uraraka out the door. By the time they finished moving, it was late enough that going to a sit down restaurant would be too tiring, so they went to their next favourite place, the convenience store.
“You kids look more worn out than usual,” Mr. Nakamura said as he looked up from the till when the heroes entered the store.
“It’s the moving day blues,” Uraraka said with a sigh.
Mr. Nakamura laughed. “So no need to use the store as an ‘accidental’ run-in spot anymore?” he asked, eyeing Shinsou knowingly, thinking back to the days when the tired hero would come in every night in hopes of running into someone who lifted his spirits.
Shinsou rolled his eyes as Uraraka curiously looked up at him. “Don’t listen to him. He’s clearly going senile,” Shinsou deadpanned as he led Uraraka to the dessert shelf in the back.
Uraraka smacked his arm but Mr. Nakamura just grinned at the two heroes, obviously used to Shinsou’s banter by now.
They grabbed almost a whole shelf worth of convenience store mochi. Both of them knew that it wasn’t the good stuff, with Uraraka’s favourite local mochi being made by a street vendor near her agency, but neither really cared. Tonight was the first night of them being together in what was officially their place. They grabbed a few other snacks and a couple bottles of sochu as they made their way over to the checkout.
“Celebratin’ the big move?” Mr. Nakamura asked casually as he rang up the items.
Uraraka nodded furiously. “Yea! Even the cats got a nice fancy fresh fish meal earlier today.”
Mr. Nakamura raised an eyebrow and held up a mochi box. “The cats got fresh fish and you’re getting convenience store mochi?”
“Yea, but it’s your convenience store’s mochi. Best convenience store mochi around,” Uraraka said with a wink.
Shinsou let out a sharp exhale as the other two snapped to look at him. “She’s trying to butter you up so your wife feeds her again,” Shinsou chuckled and shook his head, “Didn’t stop talking about that dorayaki for weeks.”
Uraraka nudged his side with her elbow, her cheeks puffed up like he spilled one of her greatest secrets.
“Well, it’s working,” Mr. Nakamura cut in joyously. “My kid wouldn’t shut up about getting to meet two ‘real live heroes’”
Uraraka smiled wide. “Well, you know… if you invite us over for food again, we could bring your son some limited merch,” she said, eyes twinkling as she schemed.
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Mr. Nakamura said, pointing at Shinsou.
“Hmm, well we could invite all of you over! You can drink out one of 17 cat mugs,” Uraraka teased, looking at Shinsou out of the corner of her eye.
“It’s a reasonable amount of mugs when you drink as much coffee as I do!” Shinsou blurted out before narrowing his eyes at her.
She patted his arm affectionately as they gathered up their bags.
Mr. Nakamura looked fondly at the two heroes as they left for the night. He hoped that they could find even half the happiness that he did with his wife, and from where he stood, they were well on their way.
At this point, with how much time they spent at his store, he absolutely expected an invitation to their wedding.